Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A Toddler's Christmas Experience

This year my family has the joy of celebrating our favorite time of the year with a two year old who is learning rapidly and growing in her ability to communicate, express emotions, and experience the world each day. I have often wondered about what a 2-year old gets out of Christmas, and how I as a dad can shape her heart from this year onward to see the beauty and wonder of Christmas as only a follower of Jesus can. Here are some quick pointers for celebrating and experiencing Christmas with toddlers and young children without being weird and while still enjoying the most fun parts of the season.

1. Be Together - if nothing else gets accomplished, help your toddler understand that Christmas is a time where people enjoy each other, as expressed through our love, generosity, and care for family, friends, and those less fortunate in our community. You shouldn't expect a toddler to grasp the immaculate conception of Jesus - but you should expect them to pick up on how mom and dad are more focused on loving others, giving to appropriate causes, and serving people than any other time of year. Attend special worship services together, go caroling together, and serve together (the best you can with a toddler, anyway) so that they understand the impact of the Christmas season on others. This helps shape their heart to be a little less selfish and a little more concerned with the well-being of others (I don't know about yours, but my 2-year old can be a little selfish at times...).

2. Centralize Jesus - if we really believe Jesus is the Reason for the Season, then how we behave, decorate, party, and give should all be proof of that belief. So are Santa Claus, Elf on the Shelf, and holiday movies okay to have around? In a word, yes. But when my toddler associates Christmas more with a commercial holiday, or more with gifts, Santa, or other fun traditions, then it will only be harder for me as she grows up to focus her attention on Jesus. We must begin early with this for it to stick. Think about how you have decorated your home: is Jesus what they see more than those other things? Think about the community events you participate in: is Jesus the focus? Leverage all of the opportunities of this season to point your toddler toward Jesus. And by the way, it's bigger than a baby in a manger - the fullness of the love and grace of God was in that baby, and we celebrate his birth, life, and sacrifice for us on the cross at Christmas.

3. Have lots and lots of fun! The brain of a 2-5 year old absorbs an insane amount of information and forms more rapidly than any other time of life! Make sure it is full of memories that bring joy and laughter. Every toddler is a little different here, but mine has more fun being with other people than anything else. While I want her to enjoy her gifts and new toys, above all of that I want her to simply enjoy every part of the Christmas season. I want my daughter as she grows up to anticipate Christmas because it makes her so full of joy, not just because she gets new stuff.

Our children grow up too fast to miss these simple reminders of how to leverage Christmas to help their hearts be shaped a little more like Jesus! I hope each of you has a wonder-full, Christ-full season full of laughter, joy, and fun with your little ones.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A Recommendation to the People of the United States

As we approach a heated election season, I happened to come across a letter that James Buchanan dispersed to the America people in December 1860 just before the end of his presidency. I feel in so many ways that the church should be shouting the same call to our people today. Our fears and issues are different, but attitudes and the political climate are strikingly similar! Here is what he said.


Numerous appeals have been made to me by pious and patriotic associations and citizens, in view of the present distracted and dangerous condition of our country, to recommend that a day be set apart for humiliation, fasting and prayer throughout the Union. In compliance with their request, and my own sense of duty, I designate

Friday, the 4TH day of January, 1861,

for this purpose, and recommend that the people assemble on that day, according to their several forms of worship, to keep it as a solemn fast.

The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger — panic and distress of a fearful character prevail throughout the land — our laboring population are without employment, and consequently deprived of the means of earning their bread — indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes are in a state of confusion and dismay; and the wisest counsels of our best and purest men are wholly disregarded.

In this, the hour of our calamity and peril, to whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our Fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies — our own ingratitude and guilt towards our Heavenly Father.

Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow, unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and national sins, and in acknowledging the justice of our punishment. Let us implore Him to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency, rather than yield a just submission to the unforeseen exigencies by which we are now surrounded. Let us, with deep reverence, beseech Him to restore the friendship and good will which prevailed in former days among the people of the several States, and, above all, to save us from the horrors of civil war and “blood guiltiness.” Let our fervent prayers ascend to His throne, that He would not desert us in this hour of extreme peril, but remember us as He did our fathers in the darkest days of the Revolution, and preserve our constitution and our Union--the work of their hands — for ages yet to come. An Omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good. He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country for keeping this day holy, and for contributing all in his power to remove our actual and impending difficulties.
 

James Buchanan.

Washington, Dec. 14, 1860.



Frank Moore, ed., Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, Documents and Narratives, vol. 1, Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events (Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library, n.d.), 17.